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Gazing at the pile in her hands, Elle was awestruck. “Thank you so much.”
She swayed to the right as Vice got in, his mammoth shoulders bumping into her, then to the left as Dagger squeezed in on her other side, but she never took her eyes from the magazines.
Pops, the smart fucker, winked at me while getting back in.
After I started the engine, Pops asked, “Vice, talk to me.”
“Nothin’, Prez. Truck and trailer are clean. I’m stumped.”
Pops stroked his goatee. “Hmmm… We’re missin’ something right in front of our faces.” Pulling out his new cell phone, he stated, “I’m not leading these assholes back to my club.” He put the phone to his ear and waited. “Road Cap, get me a room south of here. Got company and tryin’ to get further off the path to lose them… Yep… ‘Kay, text me when ya got somethin’.”
The truck stayed quiet for a bit until I heard Dagger ask, “You good, Precious?”
I studied my rearview mirror to see her staring down. That had me peering over my shoulder and noticing she was staring at the magazine at the top of her pile.
Softly, she answered, “It’s a Christmas decorating magazine.”
Pointing at the cover with a Christmas tree, Vice asked, “Is it a favorite holiday of yours?”
“Used to be,” she answered. “Even though I was unaware that my childhood wasn’t normal, and my Christmases were severely lacking—only a drawing of a Christmas tree—after reading Lorenzo’s magazines, I realized it can be a wonderful time of the year, indeed.” She beamed. “It would be a dream if I could ever drink hot cocoa and eggnog while sitting around the biggest tree, singing carols.” Her delighted expression fell away. “But even my lacking childhood Christmases ended. Since being sold, I haven’t had another one. It’s been nine years.”
Four sets of large shoulders seized.
Setting my eyes back to the road so I didn’t wreck, I forced myself to keep breathing.
A shy, “Sorry,” was whispered from the back.
Without commanding my hand to move, I suddenly reached to the back. “Babe.”
She grabbed on in a hurry. Her hands were wet. “I feel like I’m always crying around you guys.” I squeezed her tear-damp fingers as she hiccupped a cry. “It’s just that the room at the bottom of the galley was so cold.” She shrugged as more tears fell. “I mean, the last few years I had a mattress and a pillow in there, so that made it nicer, but—”
Her choking on tears and no longer able to speak, I asked, “You mean, he locked you up during Christmas?”
Her hands trembled in mine as she cried, “Every one of them. I couldn’t take one more Christmas down there. I just couldn’t.”
My jaw dropped. It was now December. “Elle—”
She held my hand to her face. “I’m sorry.”
My throat began to close. “Elle. The pills.”
And I had dared to lecture her that we strong ones don’t give up.
What a fool I was.
My heart demanding that I do something, I pulled the truck and trailer off the road and onto the grass, then ran around the hood. By the time I got to the passenger side, Dagger was already getting out of the truck to get out of my way. I reached in and grabbed my woman, not able to have her out of my arms for one more second.
Elle’s 5’9” voluptuous form melted into my frame. She desperately gripped my vest and held on with shaky fists.
To my chest, she sobbed, “I kept imagining families with decorated trees and special times together. I hated being so jealous, but instead of smiles and songs, I got a dungeon. I couldn’t take one more December like that. I just couldn’t.”
I rocked her. “I don’t blame you one fucking bit.”
She bawled, “The pills were my Christmas present to myself.”
I kissed the top of her head, over and over. “Babe.”
She wailed, “I was so lonely.”
